Antonio Ortiz Mena: 1907 - 2007

Finance chief during `Mexican miracle' years

MEXICO CITY — Antonio Ortiz Mena, who as Mexico's finance minister in the 1960s was the architect of a period of remarkable growth known as the "Mexican miracle," has died. He was 99.

According to news reports, he died Monday at a hospital in Mexico City where he was recuperating from a fall at his house two weeks ago. The Treasury Department and the Inter-American Development Bank confirmed his death but gave no further details.

Mr. Ortiz Mena, who went on to serve as the second president of the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington, oversaw a policy of fiscal prudence and public investment.

Although Mexico's economy began to grow after the end of World War II, it was while Mr. Ortiz Mena was finance minister, from 1958 to 1970, that economic growth accelerated.

"The achievements were impressive," Pedro Aspe, the finance minister in the early 1990s, wrote in an e-mail message. "With a population growth double that it is today, the per-capita income was growing at an astounding 3.4 percent annually for 12 years."

During that time, economic growth averaged 6 percent a year while inflation often remained below 3 percent. Millions of Mexicans entered the middle class, and the country began its transformation from a largely rural economy to an industrial one.

But after he left, two successive presidents embarked on economic policies characterized by runaway spending and excessive borrowing that undid many of his accomplishments.